+[[!tag standards]]
+
# Simple-V (Parallelism Extension Proposal) Appendix
* Copyright (C) 2017, 2018, 2019 Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton
Branch operations are augmented slightly to be a little more like FP
Compares (FEQ, FNE etc.), by permitting the cumulation (and storage)
of multiple comparisons into a register (taken indirectly from the predicate
-table). As such, "ffirst" - fail-on-first - condition mode can be enabled.
+table) and enhancing them to branch "consensually" depending on *multiple*
+tests. "ffirst" - fail-on-first - condition mode can also be enabled,
+to terminate the comparisons early.
See ffirst mode in the Predication Table section.
-There are two registers for the comparison operation, therefore there is
-the opportunity to associate two predicate registers. The first is a
-"normal" predicate register, which acts just as it does on any other
-single-predicated operation: masks out elements where a bit is zero,
-applies an inversion to the predicate mask, and enables zeroing / non-zeroing
-mode.
-
-The second is utilised to indicate where the results of each comparison
-are to be stored, as a bitmask. Additionally, the behaviour of the branch
-- when it occurs - may also be modified depending on whether the predicate
-"invert" and "zeroing" bits are set.
-
-* If "invert" is zero, and "zeroing" is zero, the branch will occur if and only
- all tests pass
-* If "invert" is set and "zeroing" is zero, the branch will occur if all
- tests *fail* (opposite of inv=0,zero=0)
-* If "invert" is zero, and "zeroing" is set, the branch will occur if
- even *one* test passes
-* If "invert" is set and "zeroing" is set, the branch will occur if
- even *one* test fails.
-
-This inversion capability covers AND, OR, NAND and NOR branching based
-on multiple element comparisons. Note that unlike normal computer
-programming early-termination of chains of AND or OR conditional tests,
-the chain does *not* terminate early except if fail-on-first is set,
-and even then ffirst ends on the first data-dependent zero. When ffirst
-mode is not set, *all* conditional element tests must be performed (and
-the result optionally stored in the result mask), with a "post-analysis"
-phase carried out which checks whether to branch.
+There are two registers for the comparison operation, therefore there
+is the opportunity to associate two predicate registers (note: not in
+the same way as twin-predication). The first is a "normal" predicate
+register, which acts just as it does on any other single-predicated
+operation: masks out elements where a bit is zero, applies an inversion
+to the predicate mask, and enables zeroing / non-zeroing mode.
+
+The second (not to be confused with a twin-predication 2nd register)
+is utilised to indicate where the results of each comparison are to
+be stored, as a bitmask. Additionally, the behaviour of the branch -
+when it occurs - may also be modified depending on whether the 2nd predicate's
+"invert" and "zeroing" bits are set. These four combinations result
+in "consensual branches", cbranch.ifnone (NOR), cbranch.ifany (OR),
+cbranch.ifall (AND), cbranch.ifnotall (NAND).
+
+| invert | zeroing | description | operation | cbranch |
+| ------ | ------- | --------------------------- | --------- | ------- |
+| 0 | 0 | branch if all pass | AND | ifall |
+| 1 | 0 | branch if one fails | NAND | ifnall |
+| 0 | 1 | branch if one passes | OR | ifany |
+| 1 | 1 | branch if all fail | NOR | ifnone |
+
+This inversion capability covers AND, OR, NAND and NOR branching
+based on multiple element comparisons. Without the full set of four,
+it is necessary to have two-sequence branch operations: one conditional, one
+unconditional.
+
+Note that unlike normal computer programming, early-termination of chains
+of AND or OR conditional tests, the chain does *not* terminate early
+except if fail-on-first is set, and even then ffirst ends on the first
+data-dependent zero. When ffirst mode is not set, *all* conditional
+element tests must be performed (and the result optionally stored in
+the result mask), with a "post-analysis" phase carried out which checks
+whether to branch.
+
+Note also that whilst it may seem excessive to have all four (because
+conditional comparisons may be inverted by swapping src1 and src2),
+data-dependent fail-on-first is *not* invertible and *only* terminates
+on first zero-condition encountered. Additionally it may be inconvenient
+to have to swap the predicate registers associated with src1 and src2,
+because this involves a new VBLOCK Context.
### Standard Branch <a name="standard_branch"></a>
if pred_inversion:
if pred_zeroing:
- if result != 0:
+ # NOR
+ if result == 0:
goto branch
else:
- if result == 0:
+ # NAND
+ if (result & ps) != result:
goto branch
else:
if pred_zeroing:
- if (result & ps) != result:
+ # OR
+ if result != 0:
goto branch
else:
+ # AND
if (result & ps) == result:
goto branch
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